Birding Group Statistics

February 2015

There were17 people on this trip, 16 birders and 1 non birder. They were one Frenchman living in Chile, four Canadians, and 12 Americans, one a resident of Great Britain. Our guide, 40 something, was the youngest. The oldest was in his late 80s, the next in his late 70s.  We were among the oldsters in the late 50s to late 60s group. The retired were in the majority; there were 5 working people. 

Of the 16 birders, two were birding guides (one on vacation) and one the “semi-retired” founder of WINGS. Of the truly retired, one Canadian had been a scientific translator and had translated the Peterson guides to French.  In fact, all three had written or co-written birding books and articles.

Three of us, James and I and the 70 plus year old, were the least traveled of the birding bunch. The rest had decades of experience birding on seven continents. Those avid birders had already seen many of the birds we saw as new and, on this trip, were adding missing species to their life list. Three whose stories we heard had started birding as children. There were, of course, some of us who did not spend every vacation and every free moment we could birding, but I think we were in the minority. They were a friendly group, and we learned a great deal from them.